


The Guardian across the Lake

by Annariel



Series: The Guardian and the Lake [1]
Category: Robin of Sherwood, Sapphire and Steel
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-05
Updated: 2015-01-05
Packaged: 2018-03-05 15:18:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3124976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annariel/pseuds/Annariel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pursued by soldiers Robin and Marion cross a lake and find themselves in the realm of the fey with only two strangers called Sapphire and Steel to help them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Guardian across the Lake

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Evil_Little_Dog](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Evil_Little_Dog/gifts).



> Beta-read by fredbassett
> 
> Companion piece to The Guardian by the Lake

The patrol of soldiers had been larger than expected and the outlaws were on the run. Chances were good that they would escape but they had been forced to separate and scatter throughout the forest. Marion was close on Robin's heels as they pushed between the low-hanging branches of an oak and then scrambled down the slope they found on the far side.

Marion realised she was unfamiliar with this part of the forest. The man chasing them was on horseback and would be hampered both by the undergrowth and the slope so she paused to take stock, trying to understand where they were. Robin glanced back at her and then he frowned as well, looking around just as she was.

A crossbow bolt thudded into the earth a little above them and they both turned and carried on down the hill. They would find their way back to familiar places eventually. The slope became steeper until they were walking along a narrow path with a steep drop to one side. Fog clung low to the ground and Marion could not see what lay below.

Robin paused by a standing stone next to the path and his head was raised, alert and listening. Marion paused behind him. Everything was silent. The sounds of pursuit had faded, but there was no birdsong either, not even the rustling of the wind among the leaves.

"Where are we?" Marion asked.

"I don't know," Robin said.

Marion looked along the path behind them. "It is too dangerous to double back this soon," she said.

Robin nodded and they both stared at the path before them as it disappeared into the mist.

They walked on slowly, keeping their weapons drawn. The uncanny silence wrapped them close. Eventually they came out onto the shores of a still and silent lake. At its edge, a boat of pale wood was pulled up on the shore. They stopped by the boat. They were enclosed by cliffs. Their only options were back up the path or across the water.

"Herne always sends a boat," Robin said.

"Did he send this?"

"I'm not sure. It doesn't feel like him."

They considered the boat. 

"We can't stay here, not with pursuit behind us," Marion said at last.

Robin nodded and helped her climb in. Then he pushed the boat off from the shore and climbed in after her. Robin poled them out across the water while Marion sat in the bows. It wasn't long before land loomed up out of the fog at them. It was a rocky shore with some kind of ruin beyond, a square shape in the desolate landscape. They beached the boat and climbed out onto the pebbles. 

"Where are we?" Marion asked.

Robin shook his head. "I don't know. This feels like Herne's domain only different."

A cool breeze stirred the air, but the fog did not lift and still there was no sound but their own voices and their feet displacing the stones on the ground. 

They walked up the beach and towards the towering ruin.

Marion spotted a form in the fog. She pulled back the string on her bow. Robin followed her gaze and drew Albion. The hazy figure resolved itself slowly, a lumbering form that looked almost familiar.

"Gisburne," Robin hissed and swung Albion.

As the sword connected to the figure it dissolved into mist. Robin froze. Marion hesitated. There was the faintest sound of laughter on the air and the echo of a phrase. Marion strained her ears and just about caught the words.

"Any man who strikes a blow against the guardian will be held forever."

Marion waited a moment longer but Robin didn't move. She lowered her bow and stepped forward, touching Robin on the arm. His clothing was cold and, on an instinct, she raised her hand to his face which was also cold. 

"He has been frozen in time."

A lady sat on a rock close by. She wore a dress of silk in dyed a vivid blue. It swept around her feet in generous folds. Blonde hair hung down her back in a thick braid, topped by a gorget and simple white wimple. 

Marion rounded on her. "Frozen in time?" It was both a question and a demand.

A man stepped out of the fog at the edge of the lake. He wore an ankle-length surcoat of fine grey wool with a paler linen gown underneath. His blond hair was trimmed neatly with a small beard. He wore no mail but a sword hung at his waist.

"I am Steel and this is Sapphire," he said, ignoring her question. "Who are you?"

"I am Marion of Leaford and this is Robin of Loxley."

The woman smiled. "Robin i'the Hood?" she asked.

"Yes," Marion agreed.

"Who is Robin i'the Hood?" Steel asked.

"A local legend but generally believed to be based on a real person."

He snorted. "Typical, it would be a legend who came."

"Came where?" asked Marion.

"This lake is at the edge between..." The woman paused as if searching for the right words. "The edge between two worlds. On the other side of the lake is your world and on this side is somewhere else. You might call it the world of the fair folk. Every summer solstice the link between the worlds becomes weak and it is possible a mortal may find their way to the lake and across it."

"And because _he_ is a legend, they can draw power from him," Steel said with a tone of derision.

"They?" Marion asked.

"The fair folk," Sapphire said.

Marion placed her hand on Robin's arm once more. "How do I release him?"

Sapphire rose from her seat and stepped forward, Steel at her side. She rested a hand on Robin's shoulder and her eyes glowed a bright blue in the muted light of the fog. 

Then she smiled.

"The..." she faltered once more before continuing. "The spell specifies only that any man who strikes the guardian may be claimed. I suggest you take his sword, it seems to have a power bound into it."

Marion pulled Albion gently from Robin's stiff fingers. As soon as her hand closed about it she felt its power. She looked around seeking the guardian that they had seen before. 

Steel came to stand by her side.

"You are a man," she said.

"I do not intend to strike, only to parry," he replied and drew his own sword.

Sapphire came to stand on her left. Suddenly she was holding a bow with an arrow that burned with a pale blue flame. She pulled back the string and loosed the arrow high up into the sky. Light seemed to pour around them driving back the fog.

It revealed the guardian. It was as unlike Gisburne as could be, once its glamour was thus dispelled and Marion saw instead a twisted form made of some dark metal.

"Let Robin go!" she cried and swung the sword.

It's own sword met hers with a force that shuddered up her arms and jarred her shoulders. She pulled back raising the sword for a second attempt. It thrust at her and that was when Steel intervened, turning its blow to once side as easily as if he had been swatting a fly.

"Now! Strike true!" Steel said.

Marion brought Albion down a second time. It clove through the helmet of the metal figure revealing and interior of more metal, delicate filigree and mechanisms that Marion could not comprehend. Then the creature vanished.

Robin staggered forward slightly, over-balancing as the sword he had held and the foe he had meant to hit both vanished.

"Marion?" he asked glancing at her.

She stepped up to him, touching a hand to his face to reassure herself of this warmth. "My thanks," she said to Sapphire and Steel.

Sapphire smiled and pointed out across the lake. "If you take the boat in that direction you will find your way back to the forest you know."

"What happened?" Robin asked as Marion took his hand and led him towards the boat.

"Our regards to Herne," Sapphire called.

"Tell him to be more careful of his protégé's in future," Steel shouted grumpily.

"I will tell all as we travel," Marion replied to Robin as they stepped into the boat once more.

Robin pushed it away from the shore and they left the island behind. 

Marion looked back as the fog enclosed them to see Sapphire and Steel still standing on the shore, their blue and grey fading away into the mist.


End file.
